Yes Microsoft is contributing to HD DVD, but it has nothing to do with down loadable content. Microsoft realizes that we will still have media for quite some time, people like to collect, people like to own. HD DVD has a mandatory feature called Managed Copy. Managed Copy allows you to make backup (with DRM) copies of movies you own to your computer. This is the primary reason Microsoft is backing HD DVD, they want consumers to be able to rip their HD DVD's to Windows Vista Media Centers, they want you to rip the disc to your Media Center and play it back from an Xbox. It makes perfect sense why MS would want to back that! Blu Ray has an optional feature, it's up to movie studios to decide to enable managed copy (and we all know - if it's optional many studios will disable it), with HD DVD it's required that it's enabled for every single release. The secondary reason is that Microsoft wrote some of the software for HD DVD and gets royalties on units sold.
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Yes Microsoft is contributing to HD DVD, but it has nothing to do with down loadable content. Microsoft realizes that we will still have media for quite some time, people like to collect, people like to own. HD DVD has a mandatory feature called Managed Copy. Managed Copy allows you to make backup (with DRM) copies of movies you own to your computer. This is the primary reason Microsoft is backing HD DVD, they want consumers to be able to rip their HD DVD's to Windows Vista Media Centers, they want you to rip the disc to your Media Center and play it back from an Xbox. It makes perfect sense why MS would want to back that! Blu Ray has an optional feature, it's up to movie studios to decide to enable managed copy (and we all know - if it's optional many studios will disable it), with HD DVD it's required that it's enabled for every single release. The secondary reason is that Microsoft wrote some of the software for HD DVD and gets royalties on units sold.